How Do I Coupon ?Save Money While Buying Healthy for You, Your Family, and the Planet!

Okay, so I have changed my outlook a bit and wanted to share. I have been struggling this past year with buying super great deals at the grocery store and saving money. How is that a struggle? Well I guess I would say it is more of a compromise of my beliefs in a lot of ways. I am buying products that are less quality because they are less expensive but it is at the cost of my family’s health. I personally think what we eat plays a HUGE part in our health and prevention or acceleration of disease and illness. I buy super cheap bread (.88 a loaf at Fry’s or .75 at Walmart) with the cost of high carbs and lots of sugar. I buy regular milk to save a few bucks instead of organic with the cost of added hormones and/or antibiotics in the milk . I buy regular meat at the grocery store to save some serious $$ with the cost of more hormones and antibiotics and the mistreatment of animals. I could go on and on…

This has been weighing heavily on my mind. I see myself with more headaches and belly fat than ever before. I see my husband gaining weight. And, I see my son shun veggies more and more because I provide such a small assortment now. For me, I cannot live this way of frugality without considering what the true long-term effects will be. For a year I have been shopping with saving the most money in mind and our health secondary.

Balance is what I am striving for.

So, I have decided that I am going to attempt to buy healthier while still maintaining a very tight budget. A tight budget for me could be different for you: I would still like to spend no more than $50 a week on all food, toiletries, household, and pet items per week for a household of 3 people with 3 pets. Can I do it? I don’t know but I am sure gonna try! I don’t figure I will be able to buy all organic and super healthy right out of the gate. I might never be able to because it might just cost too much. But, I am willing to try and explore and see what I can do within my budget.

This week I have managed to spend $54.00. So, $4.00 over budget. I bought organic apples, carrots and green lettuce. I also purchased organic milk, tofu, and chicken nuggets. The apples were .77/lb., cheaper than regular apples in the produce section!  The whole, unpeeled carrots were .88 a bag at Sprouts (not a sale price). I think that is pretty good considering that I normally pay $1.00 for baby peeled carrots. Organic tofu is only .20-.40 more a package. There is, however, quite the mark up for organic milk vs. regular milk. The chicken nuggets were $5.99 for a very small box but I think this is the way to go for my son and his nutrition. I wonder if they taste good? He will have to let me know. I digress! I also bought napa cabbage, a bag of potatoes, whole grain bread, no nitrate/preservative added kielbasa, 5 boxes of pasta, and butter. None of those items were organic but I figure even if half or close to half of what we consume is organic, it is better for us compared to nothing at all. The prices were, frankly, stupid for organic potatoes and butter. Seriously. Stupid. Finally, I was able to buy pet supplies including canned cat food and cat litter. Oh, and yes, there were also 2 bottles of soda in that $54.00. Hey, we all have our vices, right?

So, dinner menu plan for the week:

Monday- Tomato soup and grilled cheese sammies.

Tuesday- Kielbasa and napa w/ rice for hubby, tofu with rice for me, and chicken nuggets w/ rice for son. Canned corn and/or green beans on the side.

Wednesday- Hamburgers with french fries. Veggie burger for moi.

Thursday- Breakfast for dinner: pancakes from scratch and sausage (v. sausage for me). My 8 year old niece told me that is so not cool. ::sigh::

Friday- Fried fish for hubby, tofu and rice for me, and kielbasa or chick nuggets w/ rice for son. Veggies on the side.

Saturday- Mac n cheese, leftovers, etc.

Sunday- Leftovers,use up any fresh veggies and fruits.

So, there ya go. This is the challenge/goal/plan thus far: buy as healthy as I can buy but be realistic and stay within my budget as well. I think it will be an interesting juggling act. I will not be getting any extra items on sale this week to stock up on or even an extra sweet or bag of chips. That is gonna hurt.We will be eating less. but I don’t think that is a bad thing. It is the whole quantity vs. quality thing right there.  But, we will see what we can do and how we manage.

Sorry I have not posted any deals lately. I have been struggling with which direction I should go with on this site. I have started my family on a path (or rather a return to) healthier eating. I have been struggling with buying good deals on food that is not so great nutritionally but is super inexpensive vs. buying food that is healthy but unfortunately much more costly. Ughhh…so to say I have been slacking I guess is not the right term. Struggling with what to do exactly in my personal life and here on this site is a much more accurate description

So, I have decided I will still post the weekly deals for the Tucson area but I think I will also start adding the deals at Sprouts and Sunflower. My goal is still $50 a week for groceries and I will start chronicling that again so maybe others can see how I manage to buy more organic vegetables, fruit, meat, and dairy while maintaining a very tight budget!

I still have grand plans for this site which include how to coupon, how to organize coupons, how to stack coupons, seasonal sale items, coupon ethics, household hints & tips, freebie and sample links, and so on and so on! Phew! That is a lot! I hope that this site will truly be helpful and get more people to save money, eat healthier, and hopefully be happier, too!

So, that is that. I will post deals as I get them, which should be Wednesday :)

So my goal for this month was to spend no more than $50 per week on all groceries for our household of three humans and three pets. This was to include everything for the household including pet supplies, cleaning supplies, and so on. I am very pleased to say that I succeeded! WOOHOO! My total OOP (out of pocket) was….$120.00!! If I count in gift cards I used then it would be an additional $75 making it for a total of $195.00.I am so very happy that I was able to do this for one month. We also ate out just once at Taco Bell (are we high rollers or what?!) this month. It has certainly not been easy but it was definitely doable. Using up what I have in my pantry and fridge and being creative was a huge part of making this work. I was also able to find cheaper pet supplies by shopping around. I honestly thought Walmart was my best bet but it turns out Family Dollar had cat litter that works just as well. It does not clump as well but does not track on the floor and does not make the litter box smell as much as the other WM brand did. Pros and cons to both but saving money helps push the FD one to win .

So my goal for February? Trying to switch back to organic milk and healthier beef for my family. I am a strict vegetarian and I do eat eggs. I only buy free range organic when I do and they are 3-4x the amount of regular priced eggs but I cannot budge on that for ethical reasons. However, I sacrificed buying regular milk and all white bread to save $$. I am trying to go back to purchasing healthier foods while saving money. I do not want to sacrifice my family’s health. I figure preventative health, by way of the types of food I purchase, will be cheaper in the long run. Organic milk and grass fed beef, for example, are pretty important given the junk (hormones, antibiotics) that is put into meat and dairy today. So that is my goal: buy healthier bread, organic milk, and natural meats while still staying under $50 a week. Wish me luck! I am gonna need it!

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Well, this week has been interesting budget-wise. Earlier this week the coffee decanter decided to break. So that took an immediate $16+ out of my $50 budget for the week. Because I would be a raging B without my morning coffee. Seriously, take away my coffee and see how pissy I get! I was able to use a gift card for Walmart to pay for some of my groceries.  If I do not factor the $13.03 spent on the gift card, I would be .17 cents under budget. If I do factor  the gift card money spent, I went $12.86 OVER. Wahhh Wahhh Wahhh. I am disappointed but will try to do better next week and make up for the difference.::sigh:: I am glad and grateful I had the gift card to depend on but I am bummed that I still could not make it under the $50 goal. I will set my budget for next week at $37.14. Wish me luck!

I am still doing a menu plan for lunches and dinners. I loathe making them. I am not sure why it stresses me out so much but I do know after the initial effort it makes my week miles easier when I just have to look at the menu to see what to make. I was watching a report on the news where a woman creates a menu plan for every day of the week for lunches and dinner FOR THE WHOLE YEAR! I think I am in awe and I think she may be a little wonky- just sayin’. Here is to next week being UNDER BUDGET

So I still am keeping within my $50 budget for weekly groceries. I spent $48.61. It has been interesting to say the least juggling and deciding what takes priority. I had to buy postage stamps this week and that hurts when a book of them takes up over 15% of my weekly budget! I did find out, however, that buying the stamps at the grocery store is .74 cents cheaper than through the ATM. Who knew?! I just assumed prices of stamps were the same no matter where you buy them. Now it gets me to wonder if I buy them through the local post office would it be cheaper? It certainly pays to shop around. I bought my groceries this week from Family Dollar (pet supplies), .99 Store (produce) Walmart, Safeway, and Fry’s. I can see how not having a stockpile of necessities would make living off of $50 a week for a family of 3 with 3 pets very very difficult. I had to stand in the grocery aisle today and debate what was more important (cream cheese vs. snack pudding for my son. The pudding won fyi).  I did take advantage of the sales at Fry’s this week and was able to get 3 deodorant for free and frozen veggies for .18 cents a pack. So yay for that! I did not get to buy as many fresh fruits and veggies as I wanted to this week but it all seemed to work out in the end anyways. We have not spent any money eating out yet this month. Thanks to my awesome MIL we are going out for lunch Saturday and I am sooo looking forward to that. Next week will be interesting as I see my stock of cat food and other necessities dwindle quickly. All in all a good week!

Well it looks like for the first week of our new grocery budget our total is: $47.00! $3.00 under budget! I was able to stick to our meal plan and also able to get a few extras including pizza, dip, and chips. I ended up going to 5 stores total and the time spent was under 3 hours. Not too bad. I am hopeful next week will be just as good. I will make another menu (which I loathe) and look to see what can be used up around here to create healthy meals. I hope we do not get too bored with the meals but it will be worth it when we can throw the extra at our debt.

I have been doing a lot of organizing with coupons and our food storage. We completely reorganized the garage and it looks great. It is easier to see what we have in stock. I purchased some shelving from Lowe’s and my food storage is much more functional than before.I plan on adding bins and labels later but that will have to wait until we have some extra cash.

The biggest reorganization I have done is my coupons. If you use coupons you know what a pain in the a$$ they can be! I have vacillated between using a big filing system and only taking out coupons I need to clipping every single coupon and putting them in a small coupon holder. In all honesty, neither system seems to work very well! I am either at the store seeing an item on sale super cheap and not having the right coupon with me because it is stuck in my filing cab at home or I have so many in such a small space that I miss one or get so frustrated I say F it!!

So, I decided to use a coupon binder system instead. I will put together a tutorial of sorts so I can show how I organize my coupons, ad inserts, etc. I really like this system! I hope it helps with grocery shopping in the sense I will have all of my coupons with me and available should I see a great deal. I will post that soon!

Overall for this week I am optimistic with our new budget plan and organization!

I will post weekly deals this Wednesday when new ads come out since there does not seem to be a whole lot going on right now. I thought I would post more about our grocery budget. We have $200 a month for all groceries and household goods. that breaks down to $50/week. In order to achieve this goal here is what I have done so far to help myself out:

1. Grocery Inventory List. I made my own grocery inventory list a few days ago using a simple spreadsheet in Excel. I made columns for Item, Quantity, Expiration, and Category. I went through the refrigerator, freezer, cupboards, food storage in the garage, and our bathroom cabinets. I wrote down every item we have and use along with the quantity. Now it is much easier to see what we have in stock and what we need from the store. It is rudimentary but it is very insightful. Talk about saving head space! I can bring up the list now and see what I am okay on and what we need to buy. I plan on updating my list once a week to keep it updated. I would love to post what it looks like but my laptop has just been upgraded to Win 7 (yay!) and I am waiting for my new Office software to come. Once Office is up and running I will post my example.

2. Menu Plan. A menu plan is a great way to save money. You can plan your meals according to what you have on hand and what you would need to buy from the store. The Grocery Inventory List is essential to helping me plan my weekly menu. I am a newb at menu planning so for now I am doing weekly but hope to someday achieve super star status and have a monthly plan. Yeah, I know I am a nerd. Anyways, I was able to look at what I have in stock here at the house, create a menu for lunches and dinners, and create my grocery list for the week as well. I can see right away that using what I have here at the house and buying a few items at the grocery store I should be able to keep within $50 for this week.

3. Use what you have. This budget and meals are up to me. Same as you. There is no right or wrong way to do this. Just figure out what you have that you can use and build from there. I can see we, thankfully, have a lot in surplus to use and will not have to spend as much at the grocery store. Yay!

We have plenty of protein and boxed sides here at the house to make up the bulk of this week’s meals:

Monday: Chicken in the crock pot, fresh broccoli, veggie burger, potato side dish, and biscuits.

Tuesday: Fish and veggies, rice, vegan chicken strips and edamame.

Wednesday: Breakfast for Dinner. (One of my favorites and super cheap, too!). Breakfast burritos: Eggs, Cheese, Sausauge or bacon, veggie sausage, hash browns, and tortillas. **I need to buy eggs.**

Thursday: Noodles with protein and veggies.

Friday: Mashed potato, cheese, and corn casserole; protein and veggies, biscuits.

Saturday: Pizza with salad. **Need to buy pizza and salad. ** This meal will be inexpensive if I buy it before Wednesday at Fry’s. Freschetta Pizza $3.99. Use Freschetta Brick Oven Multi or Single Serve, Naturally Rising, PizzAmore Fire Baked, Original Crust or Flatbread Pizza, any $1/1 DND (2-7-10) SS-11/15. Final Price: $2.99. Bag of Dole Salad: $1.00.

Sunday: Leftovers.

Lunches for the week will be cheese crisps and sandwiches. Not eating gourmet here at all but it will do.

Here is what I have purchased today for this week’s groceries:

Half & Half: $1.64

Trash Bags – 58 count- $5.00

Frozen Chicken Nuggets (after coupon) : $1.80

Scoopable Cat Litter: $2.25

Total (incl. tax): $11.13 Left over for the week: $38.87.

I only had one coupon today but the items I needed were essential. So, I looked at the local ads and went to two different stores to find what I needed at the lowest price. I also brought my own grocery bag to use so I can get a .05 cent discount. Every penny counts! I found out today that Family Dollar has less expensive cat litter than Walmart. I am going to try it out and see if it is decent. I swear we spend so much on pet supplies! I have some essentials to buy for the household including more (::sigh::) pet supplies, etc. If we have enough left over in the budget then I will get the items for pizza night.

Happy New Year!

I don’t know about you but I am so glad 2009 is done!

Do you have any New Year’s resolutions? I like to call them goals so I don’t overwhelm myself or set myself up for failure . I do have some including the usual like exercising more and eating healthier. The biggest goal I have for 2010, however, is to get our personal debt under control. I figure there is no better place to keep track, post, and update this monstrous goal than here!

We have an insane amount of credit card debt and a small student loan to pay off on top of a mortgage and car loans. Yikes! Just writing that all out is humbling and stressful! But, we do want to get on top of it and reduce our debt significantly this year.

So, how to do this? Well we need to reduce the amount of money spent so we can throw the extra at our credit cards. I am so sick of paying interest to these companies who frankly do not give a crap about us. It seems every month we are getting a notice that our credit card interest is going up and our limit is being reduced. Nevermind that we have not once been late in payments in 9+ years and we have always paid off our debt.

The first way I can think of doing this ties into this website: reducing our monthly grocery bill by at least 50%. Typically, for our family of three including two cats and a hamster we spend $400- $500 a month on groceries. This includes all food items and non-food items such as toiletries , pet supplies, etc. So, I want to reduce out grocery bill to no more than $200 a month….Can I do it?

I think I can. I know I can. The concern is can we do it while still maintaining a healthy diet with fresh whole food? I am sure we could live off of Raamen and potato chips but I do not want to feel like sh!t. Eating that kind of food all of the time will ensure that. YUCK.

So, I am going to start posting my plan for sticking to $50 a week for 3 people and 3 pets while eating healthy foods. It seems like a huge goal but the mountain of debt we have is a great motivator! I want to be out of debt more than I want to spend more money on groceries, eating out, etc. I plan to document all of this here while also continuing to post Deals of the Week, coupons, freebies, etc. Wish us luck!